Isabelle wins Kent Schools’ Pentathlon

Isabelle Harding, representing her School, Dover Grammar, won U15 Girls Pentathlon at the annual London, Middlesex and Kent Schools Combined Events Champs which took place at Lea Valley on 23 May.

On a day that had originally been forecast to be hot and sunny, athletes had to contend with conditions that were anything but that.

Isabelle opened her competition with 12.29 sec in the 75m hurdles (641 points and a National Grade 3 Standard) which is modest compared with her 11.73 sec personal best. She then followed this up with 8.28m in the shot put, which was a personal best for her in a Pentathlon (417 points and a National Grade 4 Standard).

In the third event, the high jump, Isabelle set a new personal best with 1.51m (632 points and a National Grade 3 Standard).

In the fourth event, the long jump, athletes had to cope with jumping into a difficult headwind. Isabelle was unlucky with a massive third jump which was a marginal foul. However, she had a 4.68m jump from the first round, which like the shot, was a personal best for her in the Pentathlon (474 points and a National Grade 4 Standard).

Isabelle went into her last event knowing that a time below 2 mins 35 sec in the 800m would give her a new overall Pentathlon personal best score. This she easily achieved, running hard from the gun, and crossing the line in 2 mins 26.9 sec, less than one tenth outside of her personal best (732 points and a National Grade 4 Standard).

Isabelle’s final score of 2896 points comfortably won the competition, was a new personal best and was just 4 points outside of a National Grade 1 Standard. Her score puts her currently 5th in the UK U15 Girls Pentathlon rankings.

Isabelle’s next focus of attention will hopefully be selection for the Kent Team for the South of England Schools’ Combined Events Champs which will take place at Ashford on 23 and 24 June.